Kay’s New Antique Bookmark

 There is a lady at our church who always does nice things for the church staff. Every Christmas, we all get a present from Kay. During the year, she invites us to lunch at her house. She leads a weekly women's bible study  several times a year. Kay also writes a wonderful daily devotional that she posts on her Facebook page. I wanted to do something for her to say “Thanks for all you do.” So I made an “antique” bookmark for her today.  

How is that possible? What defines an item as an antique? 

Construction process? Tatting is an old art form. It’s difficult to say when needle tatting began. This article mentions a reference to needle tatting in the mid 1800’s, but the practice itself could be much older than that. 

Material used? Based on the price printed on the label, the thread I used was manufactured sometime after 1935 when a ball of Knit Cro-Sheen sold for 25¢, but before 1947, when that same ball sold for 30¢. My label has an original price of 29¢. I found 2 balls with that label at the Goodwill store in town recently. (The $1.99 label was put on by Goodwill) I had to buy them, just for the history of they represent. This thread was at least 75 years old!

I have so many questions: Who bought them when they were new? Did they have a beautiful project in mind or we’re they just buying supplies in case a pattern struck their fancy later? What craft did this person have in mind for this thread: did they knit or crochet or tat or something else? If they tatted, did they use a needle or a shuttle?

A ball of thread or a skein of yarn is a bundle of possibilities, a blank slate, just waiting for you to create something from it.

The pattern for this project can be found here.